Where we consecrate our lives to God! With two super sons and a sensational daughter.: Rex's Birth Story

Things started out normally on the morning of May 3rd, 2018, except for the fact that Rex was a day later than both his siblings had been and I wasn't thrilled. My mom came in town a week early in anticipation that he would do the same, but so far....nope. That morning I decided to bounce on the exercise ball for an hour and see what it did, and sure enough, by the time I was done I could feel something sharp pressing down and knew something had been affected. Good thing too- my next trick was to try jumping on a trampoline! Seth had had a cold with a fever and chills that day, and we prayed that he would feel better before I went into labor.

Luckily, his fever broke at midnight, and at 3 am, my water broke! That had never happened before- with Eddie they broke it in the hospital and with Rosie they broke it at the birth center, hours into labor. So I woke up wet! I took a shower and got back in bed, just in case it really hadn't been my water that had broken, because you are never really sure at first. But contractions started coming, about every 10-20 minutes apart, so of course I eventually knew.

At 5 am I texted my doula, Debra and my midwife, Mary, who had cautioned me to notify them immediately of labor since this was my third baby and they worried he would come fast. We met them at the birth center at 6:30 am.

My birth center was only a covered facility for prenatal care, NOT for the delivery, so our plan was to walk across the street to the hospital, which was covered, as soon as labor began to progress. Mary and Debra would go with me and deliver him there sans O.B. still- so like the birthing center still in that way, but the environment would be different. So for a while I bounced on the ball some more, and explored different positions. With both Rosie and Rex, I was able to get fully dilated without a lot of pain.

So we hung out there for a while, and then miracle of miracles, somehow my doula (whose birth center it was) was able to get the overseeing O.B. to sign off on my birthing at the birth center! They decided to gift me the cost of the suite (since my insurance didn't cover it) since they didn't have anyone scheduled for the birthing suite that day, so it worked perfectly. This meant I didn't have to go to the hospital! We were very glad to be able to stay in the center's much more comfortable and less invasive environment.

As I began the transition phase, things started to hurt a LOT more! The water greatly eased the pressure, and after 12 noon I mostly stayed in the water.

(We re-created a photo taken of me in the birthing pool when I labored with Rosie here)

Then things got dicey! Though I can get fully dilated and effaced without much pain, after that the labor absolutely skyrockets above my pain tolerance. I wanted to deliver Rex naturally, especially after having such a good experience at the birth center in Salt Lake with Rosie, but things were not progressing as quickly as they did with her- she was born in four hours! We'd been going on nine at this point.

So Seth got in the tub with me, and was soooo helpful- he used his manly strength to put pressure on my hips as ~~little~~ GIANT Rex was descending farther down. By this point, I was pretty much screamin'! My doula kept telling me I was going to scare the baby. ;)

Anyway, for the next three hours I pushed. But he would NOT come out! I had been focused on "breathing the baby down" as I had learned to do in my hypno-birthing preparations, but he was, in a word, STUCK.

The midwife kept telling me to push harder, but the doula (also my hypno-birthing coach) wanted to avoid tearing, and to let him come gently. They disagreed on how to proceed, but the latter employed the former and they were both avoiding giving me instruction that would step on the other's toes. But I was dyin'! Another weird thing began happening- I started to have charlie horses in both my legs, in every single muscle, all at once! By now the contractions were almost constant so I couldn't do anything to unlock them, and everyone else already had a job to do.

Meanwhile, I'd gotten out of the water because the water helps remove some of the pressure of descension, and we thought we needed to increase it. So I moved to the bed and laid on my side. Our blessed nurse Jen was then able to apply some counter pressure to my legs. My mom realized that I needed some more specific ideas on how to get Rex to MOVE! So she suggested I hold my breath during the pushing, which I had been taught in hypno-birthing not to do if you want to avoid tearing. But the chips were down and it was past time to be done so I held my breath and pushed that sucker (literally! haha) out in a couple of pushes.

Once Rex finally was born, we realized a possible explanation for why he was so stuck for so long. As he was coming through the birth canal, he had his right fist up by his cheek, and the umbilical cord was wrapped twice around his wrist and his neck, making the cord too short for him to come out, and preventing him from moving his hand out of the way too! The placenta ruptured right before he was born, and they think the final pushes I gave caused it to detach, essentially breaking the leash, so he could finally come out.

At about 3 pm, Rex Dale Roberts was born. He was 8 lbs. 6 oz, just like Rosie! But she was shorter and much fatter, LOL. He was a long, skinny thing!

I actually felt pretty amazing within an hour after he was born. The charlie horses throughout my legs went away, and I was ecstatic that I did not need stitches (for the first time! thanks to laboring in the water for so long!). Rex nursed easily, and things seemed perfect. I was bleeding a lot so they gave me pitocin (same thing happened with Rosie) but I felt fine.

I really wanted to be home for dinner that day! The kids knew baby was coming that day and were home with our babysitter, Ashley. The birthing center only gives you 4-8 hours to stay anyway, so I decided I wanted to be home at six so the kids could see baby Rex and get all their excitement out before bedtime. And I was sure looking forward to sleeping in my own bed! So three hours after he was born we were home.

The kids were so happy to meet their little brother!

He has Seth's (and Rosie's) lips! Muah!

Things have been great since. We found out he has a tongue-tie, which began to increasingly make nursing difficult. I reached out to La Leche League International and was contacted right away by a local mentor who sent me videos of special nursing positions to try with a tongue-tied baby, and we were finally able to nurse effectively and eventually to abandon the silicon nursing shield. After about a month, he got the hang of things and we were able to start nursing in the traditional upright positions that are a lot more comfortable for me. The "laid-back" position we had had to use up until that point put a lot of stress on my back and neck so I was very glad to be done with it.

And he's so cute!